"Then we looked upon each other, and I whispered, 'This is new,-
Yes, we have heard glad tidings, and that sleeper knows them true.
He knows he has a Friend above, or would he slumber here,
With men of war around him, and the war whoop in his ear?'

"So we told him on the morrow, that he need not journey on,
But stay and tell us further of that loving, dying One.
And thus we heard of Jesus first, and felt the wondrous power
Which makes his people willing in his own accepted hour."

Thus spoke our Indian brother; and deeply, while we heard,
One cheering lesson seemed impressed, and taught by every word-
How hearts, whose echoes, silent long, no words of terror move,
May answer from their inmost depths to the soft call of love.

O mighty love of Jesus! what wonders thou hast wrought!
What victories thou yet shalt gain, surpassing human thought!
Let Faith and Hope speed forward, unto earth's remotest bound,
Till every tribe and nation shall have heard the joyful sound!

-From "Thoughtful Hours," by H. L. L.

III.

RED RIVER MISSION.

HE next Sabbath evening was again cold and stormy. Winter seemed making a struggle

to regain lost ground. The young people gathered round the parlour fire with many expressions of satisfaction, on their return from school.

"Oh, how nice to get close to a good fire, and feel warm at last!"

"We do not know what real cold means, with all our comforts here. A winter in Rupert's Land, where mamma is to take us this evening, would teach us many strange lessons of patience and thankfulness."

"Is it so very cold there, papa?"

"Ask your mother, who has been reading about it."

"Yes," said Mrs. Campbell," the winter is very long and severe; and we are told that wine will often become solid, and brandy as thick as oil, from the intensity of the frost. A may may wake from sleep in the morning,

even within doors, to find his breath has formed a kind of hoar-frost on the blankets."

"Oh, mamma!"

“Of course, over such an immense tract of territory as Rupert's Land, there may be some variety of climate; but this is the general character-long, severe winters, and short, hot summers. Now, let us look at the Red River Colony again on the map. See, it is but a mere spot in the interior."

"Is it a place of red men?" said little Fanny, from her comfortable seat on her father's knee beside the fire.

"It is a place of white men now; but there are many red ones also, and red men who know and love Jesus like ourselves."

"Oh," said Anne, "I am so glad to hear of real, living Indian Christians at last! When did missionaries first go to them, mamma?"

"The Red River Colony was begun in 1811. At that time, over the whole of Rupert's Land, there were but a few scattered forts, as the trading stations were called, where the Hudson's Bay Company had some of their officials settled. The principal of these are Forts Albany, York, and Churchhill. George can point them out on the map. All the rest of the mighty wilderness was only peopled by wandering tribes of Indians, and multitudes of wild animals. And the few white settlers, both

at the forts and in the new colony, having no means of grace except a passing visit now and then from a Roman Catholic priest, fell into a deplorable state of ignorance and sinfulness."

“Did they not read their Bibles?" said Tommy.

"I am afraid there were not many Bibles among them, my dear, and few who cared to read them; and even well-disposed young persons, when far away from all churches, and ministers, and pious friends, are very apt to get cold and careless, and fall by degrees into the ways of wicked people around them.”

Then, was it wrong to go there at all?"

"It would be hard to say that; but it was certainly very wrong of people at home not to think sooner of their danger, and send them Bibles and ministers."

"And when was a minister sent?" asked George. "Not till 1820, when the Hudson's Bay Company and the English Church Missionary Society sent out the Rev. John West as a missionary chaplain. By this time there were between five hundred and six hundred colonists at Red River, besides a few Indians, and a number whose mothers were Indians and their fathers Europeans, with whom no pains had been taken, and who could hardly be known from the native heathens. Mr. West was a truly good and devoted man. He had a long, cold, toilsome journey, or rather voyage, of six weeks, from York Fort, in an open canoe, through lakes and rivers.

He arrived on a Saturday afternoon, and, without thinking of rest, gave notice that he would hold public worship the next day."

"And did the people come willingly to hear him?”

"Yes, gladly; many, perhaps, from curiosity, but some were thankful to have a minister at last among them; and many were much affected, that first Sabbath, recollecting days long past in their own homes far away."

"But then he was a minister to the white people, not a missionary to the Indians."

"Yes; but he very soon began, like Eliot, to think of the poor heathens, and long to do something for their souls. He made all the inquiries and observations he could in regard to them, while labouring incessantly for the good of his own charge, the colonists. A school for Indian boys seemed to him the best thing to try in the first place, and this he made a beginning of. After three years he had the happiness of seeing another minister-the Rev. Mr. Jones-sent out to the increasing colony, and then he went home to England, intending to bring out his own wife and family; but, from some circumstances in providence, he was prevented from returning."

"And did the new minister care for the Indians?"

"Yes, indeed; and in two years another missionary and his wife-Mr. and Mrs. Cockran-were sent out to help. By this time the colony had increased so much